[
THE SCOOP] lifestyles
Santi White, better known by her stage name Santigold, called lacrosse her favorite sport growing up in Philadelphia.
Any favorite lacrosse memories? I actually had no intention of playing lacrosse in college. I started out playing field hockey, but stopped. It was the first year I hadn’t played any sports, so by the springtime I wasn’t feeling active enough. One of my friends asked if I wanted to go out for the lacrosse team. I was intimidated at first, because the girls were moving so fast and they were executing all the plays so quickly. But all of a sudden something clicked for me. The first game I played at Wesleyan, I scored the final goal with one second left in our win. I was written in up in the school paper, and I was like, ‘This is my calling!’ That was my shining moment.
Santigold Has Got Soul
Singer-songwriter-producer showed speed on the lacrosse field
D
o-everything entrepreneur Jay-Z once called Santi White “a jack of many trades, master of all.”
That provides a fitting introduction for the musical savant better known by her stage name, Santigold, whose diverse background mirrors the artists with whom she has collaborated throughout her career: Beastie Boys, Kanye West, MIA, Coldplay and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
A Brooklyn-based Philadelphia native, White in sixth grade picked up lacrosse, her favorite sport among many. She continued playing at Wesleyan University. Her lacrosse playing days helped shape a lifetime full of eclectic experiences.
14 LACROSSE MAGAZINE February 2013 >>
When did you start playing lacrosse? Why did you like? I started playing in sixth grade. One of my babysitters might have played, and my sister too, because we always had a stick in the house. It was challenging, and it didn’t really click until I was in college.
What kind of player were you? I was a left attack wing, and I would take the draw. My greatest strength was my speed. I was really, really fast. In fact, not to brag, but in high school no one could catch me — ever.
What did you get out of your lacrosse experience? Girls aren’t really taught certain things: to be aggressive, to push yourself, to be unrelenting. Those are things girls can be taught on the field, or on the court, but they’re not often taught outside of that environment. It was really important for me to have that, because I need a lot of those qualities in the recording studio or being on tour, and those are things I feel a lot of women lack. Lacrosse instills in you a certain confidence I found really valuable.
You have quite an eclectic background — not just lacrosse and music.
I was one of those kids who always wanted to try everything. Lacrosse, field hockey and basketball were the sports I stuck to, but I also took lessons in ice skating, gymnastics, karate, tap dance, drama, violin, guitar — and this was all in high school. I painted too. And then I went to a liberal arts college, and I was still able to try everything. It was really important to me, to figure out at my own pace who I was, by trying different things and seeing how I responded to them. In 2010, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and we did it to raise awareness for the clean-water crisis. There are so many things in my life to get me through climbing Kilimanjaro, and now I use that experience to influence the other things I’m doing — in writing my songs.
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©SEAN THOMAS/ATLANTIC RECORDS
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